Share your tips for lowering grocery bills here! :D

[dipence71]

I got rid of all my Paper plates and napkins and use regular plates and cloth napkins. Saves a ton of money. I still have some "around" for the just in case but in general I don't use the paper products.
For paper towels I bought a bunch of microfiber(auto dept.) clothes to use for everyday cleaning. I still use some for my salon (acrylic nails to wipe brush as the acrylic hardens and ruins cloth ones) and for poopy pet messes also use old news papers for that. So have sut down dramatically on what I spend that way.

I try to do a once a month or bi monthly "major" shopping trip and that way I get what I need in advance and can avoid the grocery store and impulse buys. (saves me a bunch and saves time too)
I will run in and get milk from walgreens/gas station/sale where ever it happens to be cheapest as it usually runs high at grocery store.

I use allot of make your owns recipes I actually have 3 binders full of various recipes (several varieties of same thing and figure out which one we like)

I always have a garden but last yr it was very sad it was just too wet to get much so this yr I went a bit overboard and have a huge garden (hopefully things will be better this yr.
I am going to try canning this yr as well. I did some pickles last yr and they weren't the best so will try again this yr lol. If at first you don't succeed try try again lol

My FIL has cows so my DH bought video's on how to butcher cow/pig/ect so that is something we are going to try also.
I always butcher our own deer and make hamburger/roast/summer sausage/jerky...Soo I thing the cow thing could be doable We have a good grinder so why not use it more.

I just bought a new dehydrator so when it comes I will be prepared to dehydrate my garden stuff as well.

I also have just gotten into raising chickens(Buff Orphingtons) this year and LOVE it. I always put it off because I thought they were mean nasty critters but after finding BYC I plunged in and am so glad I did they are my babies and are more pets than anything right now. Haven't started laying YET!!!

Then DH decides we need ducks so now we have 5 baby ducks(magpies). They are a messy smelly bunch but they are only week or two ish old (got them at farm supply and don't know for sure) Still trying to lean about ducks as was blindsided and had not got to do research on them 1st.

We don't pay for tv although with this going digital thing I can't get the same channels I did before. Instead of better it is worse(darn government anyway!!!) I may have to look into buying a cheap satt pkg as we are in the country and no cable tv here lol.
WELL I think this is long enough soo.. By 4 now...

I LOVE this site and glad I found it!!!

 

[dnsnthegrdn]

I noticed that my message made it seem that I NEVER use paper towels, but I do use them for when there is fried food or bacon/sausage. I don't want to be a lier. One thing that helps is to put layers of newspaper down then one paper towel. I get all the newspaper I need from my mom. She always has a stack of them when I visit. So that cuts down on paper towel use.

I dehydrated TONS of cherries and I can use them instead of cranberries when they are called for in recipes. So that saves.

 

[dnsnthegrdn]

As I was eating my cereal and coffee this morning it made me think of another one. Items like coffee creamer and Soy Dream say to discard after seven days. That is a bunch of Hooey, an evil plot to make you spend more money.

I've been working on the creamer for three weeks now and the Soy Dream has been in the fridge for three months (I don't eat a lot of cereal).

Soy milk isn't the cheapest thing in the world. If I bought it new every seven days....I probably would use it.

Coffee, I have one of those reserve type ones that "don't burn" the coffee and if I have some left of the next day. I drink it. Have even drank on the same pot the third day before.

I don't think things go bad as quickly as people believe. Smell it, look at it, take a little taste. Don't let stores tell you when it goes bad.

I absolutely hate to waste food.

 

[big brown horse]

I agree. I worked in a restaurant that would serve exotic coffee in the mornings and then turn them into the next day's iced coffee...yummy for those hot summer days.

I had a package of Trader Joe's bleu cheese crumbles that I kept using 2 months after the expire date!

This may sound gross to some of you, but my mother (lived during the depression) saves the used coffee grinds for the next batch of coffee and just adds a refresher scoop on top, as opposed to starting all over with 4+ scoops and a new filter.

My father taught us to eat both ends off the apple core (stem removed) until the apple core looked like a golf ball. He said during the depression, the well-to-do kids would sell the poor kids their apple cores to polish off.

We always had diluted shampoos and conditioners too while growing up. The cream based salad dressings were also suspiciously on the thin side.

 

[mjsdhs]

I have not had the chance to read through the entire thread but the best thing i have come across is meat at the grocery store...

I go first thing in the morning and get all the sale meat for 50% off of yesterdays price..

I got a turkey at easter that yesterday was $30 today it was $15 and it freezes well...

2lb tubes of ground beef normally run about 4.99 here ...well i got the yesterdays meat tubes for $1.50

those little Susi rolls $1.50 and i will give it to the kids when they get home from school for a snack

I will get the apples from the reduced section and make mini pies out of them using my muffin tin and the kids will throw them into a tupperware container and bring it to school

I have chickens frow to everyone from BYC) I trade my eggs for fall harvest veggies

i go to the factories for a lot of food items.. I go to the bread outlet for my bread 2 loaves for $1.80 and its the whole grain bread what costs $3.49 in the store.

I go to the Christie outlet to get my crackers and cookies $1.50 a club size bag of Oreo double stuffs $1 for a box of veggie thins or Ritz crackers

 

[sylvie]

I noticed that my message made it seem that I NEVER use paper towels, but I do use them for when there is fried food or bacon/sausage. I don't want to be a lier. One thing that helps is to put layers of newspaper down then one paper towel. I get all the newspaper I need from my mom. She always has a stack of them when I visit. So that cuts down on paper towel use.

I dehydrated TONS of cherries and I can use them instead of cranberries when they are called for in recipes. So that saves.

I use brown paper bags to absorb extra oil when making fries for DH. After that the bag becomes a firestarter in the woodstove.

Do you have a cherry pitter? I picked many sour cherries last year but pitting them with the juice dribbling down my arms was the pits!

 

[big brown horse]

I have a nice little hand held cherry pitter that I got at a restaurant supply store. It is stainless steel and works great. I think I paid about 12 bucks for it.

I used to give the cherries a little pop with the side of a chef's knife like you would do garlic to get the peel off. It would open the cherry enough to pull out the seed...messy though.

 

[big brown horse]

That cherry pitter works for olives too.

 

[Alaska Animal Lover]

Okiemommy,
my system is pretty close to yours. I just sat down with a notebook and listed every meal I know how to make. Then I broke the meals down by ingredient.
Since I buy in bulk, I usually have most of the dry ingredients on hand. I only have to buy the perrishables every month, meat, veggies, fruit, etc.
About every 4 months I have to make a big trip to Costco and replenish the dry goods. On those days I try to get it all. Laundry soap, shampoo, tp, etc. I still go to the regular grocery to get things that would go bad in bulk. In our house we would not use 5lbs of onions, so I buy one or two. I hate food going bad.

I buy my meat at Costco too. I get home, divide into individual meal portions and use my food saver to seal it up. I sealed 7 packages of ground beef and 3 of pork chops, just from buying one package each at Costco.
I bought a huge roast made it for dinner with potatoes and carrots and will use the abundant leftovers for soup/stew or pot pie next week. All I have to do is take it out of the freezer.

The inital "big" trip will cost you. You might have to save up. One awesome feature that Sams club has is click and pull online, you can make your entire list and see how much it would cost you to buy everything in bulk.
It won't work uness you have the storage facilities of course. We have three freezers and a large shelving unit in the garage for the cases of veggies etc.

 

[dnsnthegrdn]

Do you have a cherry pitter? I picked many sour cherries last year but pitting them with the juice dribbling down my arms was the pits!

I just have a cheap plastic one that my mother in law gave me. I just pulled out a little table and layered it with towels. Same deal for me, juice running down my arms. I'd just rub my arms along the towel as I was working or rest my arms on the towels as I did it. I kept some wrinkly hands as well.